Imaginary Work

If we say that psychological work is where we have the capacity not to automatically resist our own inner state (i.e. not to try to make it different to the way it actually is) then clearly ‘non-work’ is where we aren’t able to draw upon…

The Sun Doesn’t Shine With An Agenda

• A good way to understand mindfulness is by thinking about light – where the light is that is mindfulness, and where the light is not, that is not mindfulness! The light is our gentle non-judgmental awareness.   • Our normal way of dealing with…

Escaping From Ourselves

How can the tyranny of a fixed repeating pattern ever bring itself to an end? The answer to this question is simply that it can’t. The pattern has no way to bring itself to an end – whatever the pattern does is the pattern and…

The Prison of Purposefulness

The cruellest prison we could ever find ourselves in is the prison of purposefulness. What could be crueller than this? The funny thing is though that we are more than likely to have very little (if any) appreciation of the truth of this statement. We…

Life Is A Risk You Have To Take

There is an Indian saying which says “What you don’t give away, you lose”. This is not too far away in its meaning from the basic principle behind Western psychotherapy, a principle which can be expressed as follows: The more you risk, the more you…